The ownership tussle of
the Sheraton Lagos Hotel and Towers and its owning company, Ikeja Hotels Plc, has deepened as different members of the Ibru family moved to assert authority.
The Tide source reports that while a group led by Mrs Maiden Ibru, widow of late Guardian Publisher, Mr Alex Ibru, moved to hold an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM), Mr Goodie Ibru, the hotel chairman, described the purported meeting as null and void.
Mrs Ibru had earlier on December 1, 2014 published an EGM notice of Ikeja Hotels Plc in The Guardian  and Punch Newspapers, in an apparent bid to overhaul the company.
Her notice of EGM followed an earlier court order arising from an ex parte motion forcing the company to hold the meeting, on January 6, 2015 at the Sheraton Hotel.
On the other hand, the other members of the Ibru family, led by Goodie Ibru, got an ex parte injunction from the Federal High Court, Abuja, restraining Mrs Ibru from calling an EGM or representing her late husband’s investment vehicles holding shares in Ikeja Hotels Plc.
Goodie Ibru’s group said that their ex parte motion was sequel to a bitter litigation between the children of his first wife, Mrs Helen Ibru, and Mrs Maiden, his second wife.
But in a swift development, some shareholders of the hotel, against a Federal High Court order, on Tuesday, sacked Goddie Ibru, as the chairman and director of the company, over corporate governance infractions.
The shareholders unanimously approved the sack of Ibru at an alleged EGM in Lagos.
The shareholders also appointed Mr Olumide Braithwaite and Mr Tunde Sarumi, as directors of the company.
They also appointed KPMG Nigeria Ltd to carry out a forensic audit of the management of the company from 1999 to 2014, when Ibru was its chairman.
The shareholders also mandated KPMG to carry out a forensic audit of the share register and verification of the funding and payment for the shares of the company by holders, directly or indirectly amounting to two per cent or more.
The meeting was presided over by an interim Chairman appointed by the shareholders, Mr Rasheed Olaoluwa, the managing director, Bank of Industry (BOI), also a shareholder in the hotel.
The meeting was held amidst drama as the shareholders were barred from entering the premises of Sheraton Hotels following a court injunction granted Ibru by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
President, Progressive Shareholders of Nigeria, Mr Boniface Okezie, told newsmen that the shareholders were on a rescue mission to ensure good corporate governance and avoid the collapse of the company.
Okezie said that the shareholders would defy the barricades at the gate and pass all the resolutions.
“We are rescuing this company from the hands of the cabals. We are legally authorised to hold this meeting.